He is signed till 1 Jan and Revs have a two year option. I'm at a loss to know if they will try to keep him ore not. His play so far has been typical of the struggle all SI's have in adjusting to MLS. Big question: is his Cap portion and up side enough that SN wants to keep him? I say it's a coin flip.
I don't want to think about, talk about or hear any more about the 2006 Cup Match--it hurts a bit too much. So I'm going to turn my attention to the next matter on the Revs adgenda---providing a list of 11 protected players. Key to who goes on the list is what the insider thinking about which Rev player will be sold and how that would play if they are not on the protected list. I've heard lots of opinions about "the Rules" as far as I know what would happen if a player like Dempsey was left exposed and he was selected by Toronto. MLS jello rules could well be in play My guess is that the Revs will need to protect him. Reis Dempsey Joseph Noonan John Parkhurst Riley Larentowicz Hernandez Dorman Smith Exposed---Franchino, Leonard, Pepe, Ralston. Heaps Cut---Abundis
Don't expose Heaps. He bleeds Revolution red-white-blue. Good on him for having the balls and desire to want to take a penalty kick. It is on Shalrie, Stevie Nicol and Paul Mariner to have cooler heads and not let him.
Heaps has to be on there, Dempsey as well or else we have no claim to an allocation if he moves in January. We only have 2 SI's -- John and Abundis -- so I'm assuming we have to keep 1. I figure we go John, Reis, Parkhurst, Heaps, Twellman, Ralston, Joseph, Dorman, Dempsey, Noonan, Larentowitz. That leaves notable openings: Franchino, Riley, Smith, Leonard, Abundis, etc. I doubt we're at much risk of losing Smith since Torontos' non-Canadians roster slots are limited and you can't really waste one on one-dimensional Khano Smith. I'd like to keep Ralston, unlike most. Sure he's lost a step and has a high salary, but if we're looking at losing Joseph, Dempsey, Twellman, Noonan, even Dorman we have to hold onto Ralston just for a sense of continuity. Plus, take away those 5 and he's probably the most talented guy left.
Lets remember TFC will need to use a SI slot to roster American players as the Foreign players that have a green card. They have just so many SI slots so even though they can pick up to 10 players they may just not take all ten.
This is the best list so far. My only quibble would be exposing Smith. Although he might be unlikely to be selected, it's a gamble I would rather not take Larentowitz is the one I would not protect, and I'm surprised to see him on almost every list. Sure, low salary American players are vital, but between our already low cap number and the likelihood of losing a few of our stars to Europe, cap room is not an issue going into next year. Not to mention the Beckham rule. Thus, while Jeff is a decent enough player, we need to make sure we don't lose any more attacking talent
trade em all, who cares. it will be a rebuilding year no matter what. dempsey and sharlie confirmed their tickets out after the way they played today. and probably reis, ndorman and john also. cancela isn't worth his contract, let him go. so realistically, our core next year is parkhurst, ginger bonito, khano, twellman and noonan. we're gonna suck.
Could be worse. At least Tornborg isnt proclaiming us to be a superclub and making a fool of us all. I don't think we'll suck anyways. Part of the problem this year was continuity and having too many "untouchable" players. If competition for starting spots an resume, we will be much better off because then guys will be running harder for the ball.
I think this kid has a huge up side and will get better and better with experience. He's smart, big, has reasonable speed and good attacking instincts with a powerful shot from distance. If we lose Joseph he and Hernandez will be key players in our defense. For those who think we will suck next year stop and consider--- we will likely have almost the same defensive corps next year and thats one hell of a good foundation for any team. If we can keep Reis, Heaps, Parkhurst, John, Larentowicz and Hernandez we will be OK.
Couldn't have said it better myself. I think James Riley will be more important next year as Rally ages more. Just out of curiosity, what happened to Latham after the Celtic goal??
yeah, let's expose heaps because he missed a penalty shot. forget all that solid play all season to get us to that point. he's parkhurst + the ability to get forward + leaping ability on headers. if you are just talking about the PK, you're a clown. if you're talking about man-marking on the ching goal, where the ball was played in and took a deflection, how could he react that quickly? had it not been deflected, he probably would have been in much better position.
I guess I should carry this thought a bit further: Lets say we do sell Dempsey, Joseph and Twellman ( I think unlikely all three will leave) we would get two or three chunks of money designated to be used to buy replacements. Losing them would leave big holes but the basic team would still have a strong framework to build on. Reis Heaps, Parkhurst, John, Riley, Lochhead Ralston, Hernandez, Larentowicz, Dorman, Franchino, Leonard, Smith, Brown, Pepe Noonan, Sims, Gonzalez. Abundis Pbviously a few of these players will be gone but I'm not sure any of them will be playing in Toronto
heaps will be a year older, we need to think about what happens after him. I'm not so sure ries will be here and I'm not sure john will be here (celtic has shown interest in him). quite frankly, I'm worried. We knew we needed to fix the left last year and we didn't. next year we already know we need to get some guys who can put the ball in the net (let's face it we did not score a lot of goals). With expansion draft and potential departures, this could be a very different looking team and we could have a lot of ground to make up. based on history, I have no reason to believe the kraft's philosophy about this team will change enough to make all the changes we need. how to even start to talk about this, god knows. The FO needs to in thier heads decide who is being sold and who isn't (and let's face it, who knows how much MLS is telling them about their plans with our players.. thank you single entity) just to determine who is worth protecting and not. from what I undersatnd, there is not a hell of a lot coming out of this draft beyond the top few. and for all the talk of SNs terrific drafting, we got 1 guy this year who looks to have potential, 2 have already been dropped and who knows what simms will turn out to be. there will be a thinner talent pool next year available to to the expansion. we have our work cut out to make this team good next year. it will be a lot of work.
Khano was not even on the pitch before one of the kids was complaining. How can you put him in before Cancela? He only has one move. He can only go to his left. After he got the ball a few times, he's practically shouting "See! I told you! He always does the same thing!" His younger brother asked why we didn't just cut him. "He's probably going to be starting for us next year" was the reply. Priceless.
seriously, you have a problem when week in and week out the match looks like this: frapachino + khano= 1 medicore player. for franchino's salary you can get a guy who can play the full 90 as well as either of these guys. yet we don't go and buy them. we are always penny wise pound foolish with players. pepe makes 5 times more than dorman.. um? hello? that is stupid management. why do we hang on to pepe. I'm a huge fan, but seriously.... sunil, pick a ********ing job and drop the other (preferably, leave here bacuse we don't want you. and you suck). I just realized, this is 4 days away! shit!
We have to protect 3 SI, but as I understand it we've only got two, Abdunis and John (the others have green cards). Does that mean we get to protect 9 others, or just 8? I'd keep Dorman Parkhurst Joseph Twellman Hernandez Heaps Reis Dempsey (for the allocation slot) Cancela (who I think has trade value) (if we can only shield 8 then Nicol will expose him as well) Unprotected Riley- nothing special and replaceable in the college draft Ralston- age and diminishing production make him an unlikely Toronto pick Franchino- They'd be smart to take him but they won't Noonan- out of contract, plays same role as Twellman, might bolt Smith- got his good points but marginal MLS player Larentowicz- good upside, but no sure thing Simms- they won't want him We can only lose one, and I think it would be Noonan or Larentowicz, probably Noonan, but I think we'll need more speed up front next year to pair with Twellman anyways.
Not to criticize, but unless Noonan is leaving the league then proetcting players like Heaps and Cancela and exposing him makes no sense. Also, instead of exposing Ralston and protecting Heaps, I'd try and get Ralston to play right back. The way I'm reading things, we hae to expose no more than 1 SI (Abundis) and can protect 11 and Sims is protected for free. John Reis Parkhurst Noonan Twellman Dempsey Joseph Dorman Hernandez Ralston Larentowicz This is assuming that we'd get something of value if players like Dempsey leave. If Dempsey and Joseph leave, Larentowicz should play a ton of minutes next year.